Rain! - well possibly

 Yes, we have rain forecast for overnight tonight, but I am not holding my breath, we have been fooled before with false promises! All I can say is that we have had another week of heatwave although fortunately far more bearable temperatures.

I spotted these from my backdoor at 7am earlier this week. Obviously taking advantage of the fact that the wind had dropped considerably.

My Stitch Journal has progressed - the end of the month is in sight!

The hexagon patchwork has grown this week - mainly thanks to an afternoon with my patchwork group.

I need to get a move on this week as there will be a new Chookshed Challenge next weekend.

I have also made more granny squares but I won't bore you with more pictures of them and been playing in my sketchbook.

So, that has been my week - I am off to play with my hexies, see you next week.

Count Binface for Clacton!

 Well, what a week it has been! Three deaths - the amazing Bonnie Tyler, newsreader Dermot Murnaghan and sadly (though not because I liked the womans politics) Ann Widdicombe. Another heatwave! Trump making himself look a fool over the football. England getting through to the next round!

And the resignation stunt of the ghastly Nigel Farage.  For those who don't know him, he is a friend of Donald Trump, no more need be said. Farage is standing again as MP for Clacton, supposedly to pit himself against the establishment and for the 'good people' of Clacton to back him. Quite sensibly, all the main stream political parties have decided not to stand against him. However Count Binface has come to save the country! And a lot of the country are behind him judging by facebook. So are these Clacton residents if the bin bag flags flying outside their houses are anything to go by.

So, moving on to more sensible things, here is a Stitch Journal update.

And my Chookshed Challenge.

I have been working on the third round of hexies - I have marked the centre hexie, top centre in the picture. But have not done as much as I would like as I am finding it all a bit hot on my lap. So instead, while the football continues, I have made a start on some crochet. I had quite a lot of yarn left over from the Seashore blanket that I made earlier in the year and have started using it to make granny squares for a warm winter jumper. I purchased some fushia yarn from the same range and am using that to edge the squares. These are what I have come up with this week.

Very happy with how these are looking.

Right, I am off to watch some cricket - and possibly make some more granny squares. See you next week - I wonder what it will bring?

Saturday evening edit!

Oh no - just found out that Patricia Greene has died. She was the longest serving actor on The Archers and played Jill Archer for 65 years. 😢❤️

Almost afraid to listen to the news now!!

A Grand Day Out

 It was a lovely day yesterday - clear blue sky but not too hot. Perfect for a day out and fortunately we had arranged to meet up with friends at A La Ronde which is on the South Devon coast at Exmouth. The original house was built by Jane and Mary Parminter, cousins who had been on The Grand Tour of Europe with Jane's younger sister and another female friend. They were away for several years and on their return Jane and Mary decided to set up home together and they purchased the land where they designed and had built the house that they were to live in - A La Ronde. This is the entrance to the house with the view of Exmouth harbour.

The house has 16 sides. There is a central octagonal hall with wedge shaped rooms leading off it all around the building. It was designed so that you could follow the sunlight from room to room around the house during the day giving the maximum light for reading, sewing etc. No space was wasted and there are cupboards and bookshelves built into every nook and cranny.

I did not take many pictures inside the house as the lighting was not very good. But it is full of treasures collected on their travels along with family heirlooms. However, I soon homed in on some embroidered pictures! I first spotted this stumpwork piece.

Sorry about the reflection and the angle - it was just slightly above my head height.

These two pieces were nearby.

The house is most famous for it's shell frieze around the octagonal gallery at the top of the house. Having recently been cleaned, the National Trust decided that the frieze is now too fragile to allow visitors to view from the gallery so we had to make do with glimpses and there are films of it to view. The staircase up to the gallery is blocked but you can see up - as in these not so brilliant pictures.

You also get glimpses of it from the octagonal hall and mirrors are thoughtfully provided for getting a slighty closer view.

Shell collections are everywhere, mostly behind glass but this one in the fireplace makes for a great display.

The house sits in it's own grounds with the lovely view of the sea.

This is the side of the house facing the sea.

Now a quick recap of my weeks sewing. It was the end of the month so Stitch Journal pictures of June.

And the start of July.

I have added a couple of flowers to my hexie quilt.

And finished a sock.

Thank you if you have made it to the end of this post - I shall be back next week. Happy Stitching.

The End of May - Almost

 Yes, just one more day of May and then we are into June. It's not been a very productive week here - it has been so HOT! Cooler today thank goodness and for the coming week. We may even get some much needed rain.

Just one more day to add to my Stitch Journal - here though are my additions for the last week.

I have put together a crazy background ready for embellishment - this will be a gift for a friend.

And I basted a batch of hexagons ready for whenever Deana pulls out #5 for the Chookshed Challenge.

 These are 1" hexies, my prefered size. I think I mentioned earlier that I planned to do these as part of this months challenge, along with my crochet basket. I am sharing another picture of the basket here so that I can add this post to Deana's link when she puts it up.

Now I am looking forward to finding out which number Deana pulls for June.

Have a lovely week.

Chookshed Challenge January

 

Challenge #6 has been put away now - very happy with the progress I have made on this. Not enough blue hexies to finish off round that last flower - I need to shop, chop and baste! 16 of the 42 flowers have been used and hopefully I can get some more of this done over the year when nothing else is calling.

Many thanks to Deana for organising the challenge - looking forward to next months number now.

Sunday Catch up

 Just popping in with an update on what I have been working on this week. First of all my stitch journal for the week up to yesterday.

I have been busy with my Chookshed Challenge and have more hexies basted and extra flowers added.

Bit of a busy photograph but you get the idea. Sorry about the shadow - grim weather and light here today. A shopping trip is needed for more blue pathway fabrics😊😊 One more week on this so hopefully I can make a lot more progress.

Also my Trailblazer socks have progressed and you can now clearly see the pattern.

There is one twist to the front of the sock and one at the back but not central - offset - hope that makes sense.

Thats it from me for this week - happy stitching!

FNwFs December

 And our last Friday Night With Friends for 2021. Thank you Cheryll for organising our Fridays over the last year. Pop over to Cheryll's blog here to see who else took part and what they were up to.

A busy day here with the market and hairdressers in the morning. Then the afternoon was wet and cold and so I sat by the fire writing Christmas cards. I have made a good inroad into my list but it takes time as many of them need updates on our year. Always lovely to hear from old friends at Christmas though.

 However, I did manage to cut some hexies and start basting them during the evening.

These are for the outer border of Wings and Pretty Things - not that I am anywhere near adding the outer border but I wanted to make sure I had a good selection of fabrics for these before moving on to the applique blocks.

Sunshine and showers here today so after writing a few more cards I think I shall make a start on the first applique block. First though I am off to see what everyone else got up to yesterday evening.

FNSI MArch

 I have been a busy bee recently basting the coffin hexies for my Wings and Pretty Things borders. I have basted more than I need for the moment but I felt it was good to have some done ready for the outer border, when I get there. Anyway, here they are

and here are the ones for the first border, all sewn together.

So my Friday task was to cut the background fabric and start appliqueing! And this is where I was by he end of Friday.

Not quite finished but almost!

Many thanks to Wendy for getting us together again - you can see who else took part here. I have a bit of reading to do I can see!

This lovely postcard arrived in my postbox recently

It was from Annie as a bloghop prize. If you don't know Annie then do pop over to her blog, she makes some lovely things. It is some time since a post card came my way and it has enthused me to make some myself!

Spring is well under way here although it is decidedly nippy here this weekend with a cold north wind blowing. But the sun is shining and there is not a cloud in sight!

Have a great week

Friday Night Sew In

The months are rolling by and another Friday night has passed in the company of friends. Many thanks Wendy for getting us all together again. You can catch up with everyone here.

Well, I have very little to show I am afraid as I spent my afternoon working on some secret stitching and then in the evening I got out my crochet and made these.

The Persian Tiles crochet project that I kept in UK to work on while visiting Mum and Dad came back to France with me this summer and has been sitting in the cupboard.

As I have finished all the tiles and just need to make the joining pieces I thought that it was about time that it was completed. So this is my evening task for the coming week.

In other news I have completed another round of my 1797 Revisited.

And I have the next round of turquoise cut out. So if I get fed up with crocheting tiles together I can always baste a few hexies!

Hope you are having a good weekend.